Monday, November 17, 2014

Connection not perfection – New way of learning with All Ears English

Hey Guys,

Today, let me speak about an amazing podcast. It is All Ears English that was founded by Lindsay McMahon “the
English Adventurer” and Gabby Wallace “the Language Angel” from
Boston, Massachusetts, USA. In this short article I’m going to introduce
Lindsay and Gabby, their podcast very briefly, in addition I’m going to tell
you who I recommend this podcast to. All Ears English is also available on iTunes, and Stitcher.

First of all, I’m telling you how I found All Ears
English. I referred to Mandy’s Pronuncian.com quite often in my blog. In one of
her episodes, Mandymentioned that she was
a guest of All Ears English. From her recommendation, I felt that it must be
a great tool to learn English. I visited All Ears English website, and I began
to listen episodes one by one. They have published more than 210 episodes and
I’ve listened to about half of them so far.

And now let’s meet these amazing teachers.

Lindsay has been teaching English as a Second Language
(ESL) for more than 10 years. She has taught in Japan, Argentina, Guatemala,
New York City, and here in Boston. She is the founder and CEO of the English and Culture as well.

Gabby has been teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and Spanish for
more than 10 years in the USA and Japan.

Gabby has left but the main concept of this podcast will stay the same.
Lindsay is working with temporary co-hosts right now, but she’s looking for her
new permanent partner. When Lindsay announce her/him, I’m going to update this
blog post at once.

Then I’d like to speak about the episodes. How does an
episode look? Each episode lasts about 10 minutes. Each episode is a funny, and
enjoyable conversation of the co – hosts. They sometimes have a special guest
just like when Mandy was interviewed.

All Ears English began to teach English differently
from old, traditional methods. Lindsay and her partner want the learner to feel
that learning English is a pleasure and not an obligation.

I have to tell you that Lindsay, Gabby and their
guests are speaking pretty quickly, but it’s the normal pace in every day
English. They speak very nicely and clearly using a lot of reductions, phrases
and idioms. That’s why this podcast is not really recommended for beginners. If
you’re at upper intermediate level and you don’t know how to reach the advanced
level – you may think that you hit the wall – , All Ears English is
the best tool for you.

If you have some not so serious comprehension problem,
you find a blog post with the main message and the outline of each episode. I
also add that the podcast is free as well as the blog I mentioned beforehand.
If you need some instructions about how to learn from a podcast you can
download their free
e-book.

It’s still possible that you need a little more to
understand even more. You can also get the transcripts of each episode, but
it’s not free. They provide an example transcript so you can decide if it’s
helpful for you.

All Ears English publishes a new episode 4 times a
week from Monday to Friday, and IT’S SO AMAZING. I have no any idea how they
can assemble, edit, record new episodes so often.

This episode is not about a romantic relationship.
Lindsay and Gabby are speaking about getting to know another country and its
culture, so falling in love with a new place. They recommend some resources to
immerse oneself in the culture.

In this episode, Lindsay and Gabby refers back to the
former episode. They teach some phrases they used in Episode 9
(tongue-in-cheek, rich experience, I’ve been meaning to do something, to get a
place). Would you like to know what these phrases mean? Well, visit Episode 9
and Episode 10 and you’ll be familiar with these nice expressions.

Nowadays, I’m asked quite often about the best ways to
learn new words and phrases. In this episode, Lindsay and Gabby teach you a
method of flashcard. This method is quite popular as well as very effective. If
you’re familiar with it, it’s still worth listening to it if you want to hear nice
American English Conversation.

It’s great. I chose this week because of the quote of
the week. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything
new.” (Einstein) IT IS AWESOME. Many language learners are afraid of
speaking foreign language because of making mistake. There is no any person
without making mistake – even native speaker. So don’t be shy because of
mistakes. Be brave to speak!

I could mention dozens of good examples that I love so
much in All Ears English Podcast, but it doesn’t make any sense to repeat
everything Lindsay and Gabby say during the episodes. I give only one more
example.

All Ears English has a series of 15
Quick Fixes for your top English Challenges. You can read about these top frequent problem (such as Listen vs Hear;
Say, Tell, Speak, Talk; Do vs Make) and so forth); in addition, you can hear an
episode about each problem.

Finally, I also would like to speak about the website itself. The website
has very rich content, It’s very well detailed, and at last but not least super
user friendly. When I’m sure that I saw something on the website, I’m able find
the same content again later as well. In addition, All Ears English is a very
nice website.

All Ears English really pays attention to their
listeners. The listeners may subscribe to All Ears English mailing list so they
won’t miss any episode or new content. In addition, their listeners may also
recommend new topics. So did I. I’m looking forward to the episode when Lindsay
and her co-host will speak about any of my suggestions.

All Ears English provides a new, innovative approach
of teaching English. If learners follow this podcast, they’ll soon discover a
new experience of learning English. It doesn’t provide miracle. The learners
still have do work hard, but they won’t find it a boring process, rather they
will enjoy it.

Lindsay’s response:

"Attila, Thank you for this great article about All Ears English. As
you said, our goal is to make our listeners feel that connecting with people is
more important than speaking with perfect grammar so that is why we always say,
"Connection NOT Perfection."

Our vision is to make upper intermediate and advanced learners feel that
learning English can actually be fun and to help them realize that you can
learn about other aspects of life and culture while still improving your
English.

We are a community of listeners and learners who want something better with
our English learning!

Please join us if you believe in our vision of Connection NOT
Perfection!"

3 comments:

I think everyone wants to ensure that they present their best work at all times. This is so whether someone is writing in English or another language. Of course, it easier when you are writing in the language that you grew up speaking.